In recent years, communications headsets have expanded in functionality from being two-way communications headsets meant only for use with an intercom system (ICS) or radio to also including the ability to accept (wirelessly or via conductive cabling) audio from an auxiliary audio source to (e.g., a tape player/recorder, solid-state music playing device, etc.), to provide active noise reduction (ANR) functionality, and to wirelessly link with cell phones for two-way communications with and through that cell phone. However, the addition of these newer functions frequently imposes a requirement for increasingly complex electrical signaling between at least two separately encased components of a communications headset that are often coupled by a cable.
As will be understood by those skilled in the art, common approaches to accommodating the need for such increasingly complex electrical signaling through such a cable often entails the introduction of some form of digital serial bus by which binary codes representing commands may be conveyed to control various functions and/or the provision of additional electrical conductors that are each associated with a separate one of the functions to be controlled. A drawback of the provision of a digital serial bus through such a cable is the resulting increase in complexity required of circuitry at each end of that cable to encode and decode the binary codes representing the various commands. In the case of a communications headset that serves to enable what may be critical communications (e.g., communications between a pilot and a control tower, or communications among crew members in a military vehicle), such an increase in complexity is usually deemed undesirable as it tends to increase opportunities for malfunctions to occur during occasions when malfunctions can be least afforded.
While the provision of additional conductors that each correspond to a separate function may avoid such encoding and decoding complexities, a drawback of the provision of additional electrical conductors through such a cable is that the cable becomes increasingly heavier, thicker and less flexible as each conductor is added. Whether such a cable couples separately encased components of a headset that are both worn on a user's person or such a cable couples a component of a headset that is worn on a user's person to a separately encased component that is itself coupled in some way to a portion of an interior of a vehicle, it is often desirable for that cable to be as light, thin and flexible as possible to avoid burdening a user with unnecessary weight and/or to avoid impeding a user's freedom of movement any more than necessary.